New Roles
by InsanitiesACJack
Summary: What would happen if James and the Lone Wanderer switched places? If the daughter left and the father searched? This is the story of just that...
1. Chapter 1

I looked at my wife as she struggled with the small thing coming out of her. Madison was working with me, working to get our child out. Oh such things, even now, as I worked to make sure both my wife and my child stayed alive, another part of my brain was imagining a dozen different things, playing baseball, teaching him or her to shoot… But, I put my mind away from those things, focusing my full attention on the miracle in front of me. My child was almost out, and I could already see it was a girl. I watched as her head finally came out, beautiful, and finally declared the words. "It's a girl… A beautiful baby girl!" Catherine lifted her head, getting a little peek at the tiny girl, and moaned in delight, and more than a little weariness. She looked so glad, and I probably did too, which made my smile even wider. I looked at the small girl, feeling my spirits lift in a way they never had before, except when Catherine and I were lying together, simply basking in each others warmth, and I could hear her small breaths as she slept. I refocused upon the small girl in my hands, and I crooned before I spoke. "Look at you… Hi there, princess, I'm your daddy! Daddy! You're gonna need a name, aren't you? How about… Terra? That's a beautiful name for a beautiful girl…" I smiled happily, then shifted my face to Catherines' beaming with pride and feeling joyful, though I did note she looked a bit green. Nevermind, it was normal, and then I heard something whir. I looked behind myself, and saw the monitor that was supposed to show what a person was likely to look like when they reached the age of twenty.

I looked at the picture, and felt in awe by the beautiful features. She has a smooth curve of a face, like a round ball that was made of stainless steel, and her eyes were the brightest blue. Her nose was small and precise, giving her the picture of innocence, and her mouth was small lipped. Even as an adult, she looked so young, and the projection even stated her to be short. I loved it, and I vibrated with happiness as I heard Catherines' words. "Oh… Look at her, just like her daddy… So beautiful…" I beamed once again, though I knew she looked much more like Catherine than me; I was large, and bulky, and had dark skin, and had a much more angular jaw. Nevertheless, I was proud. "Look at that Terra, you'll be the picture of beauty, and people will love you. There are so many people, so many different kinds, I wonder what kind you'll be… Wait…" I looked at the heart monitor, and for a moment I couldn't move. Then I was rushing into action, belting out commands. " She's in cardiac arrest, get Terra out, move it!" My voice had force, and Madison followed the orders without questions as I began working on my wife.

It wasn't until an hour later that I left. It wasn't until an hour later that I finally accepted it. With the birth of my child had come the… the… of… my wife… I don't know what to do… What should I do…?

I looked at Terra, how cute she was, trying to get steady on her legs. Then she looked into the lights on the ceiling, and winced, falling on to her small little rump. I gave a little chuckle. "Don't look into the light Princess, it'll hurt your eyes. Come on, focus on me." My little Terra did just that, and for the first time ever she steadied herself. She took a few tentative steps forward, then got the feel for it and sped towards me. I laughed, picking her up into an embrace as she came up to me. I smiled, and then I started exclaiming. "You did it! You did it! Just a year old and you're walking so well! Hahahaha! Catherine would have been so proud of you, I can imagine her, tears in her eyes…" Then the moment was interupted by a small beep on my pipboy. I winced, setting Terra down to check. Damn, Stanley had ripped his hand up while working on some old bot he had found. Planned to name it Androy or something. "Listen sweetie, I need to work for just a little bit. I'm sorry. I'll be back in a bit. I set her down and closed the gate, smiling warmly as I hurried to get the work done quick. After ten minutes of healing up Stanleys' hand, I returned to my room and heard excited giggling. I tapped the button on the door, then tapped the stop button before it opened all the way. Through that little peek hole, I watched as my daughter scanned through a little picture book called You're Special!. I watched, and saw that she seemed to go to the S, E, and I pages quite a few times, and she visited L about two or three times. Finally, she seemed to leave the book alone, and seemed to stare at the door. I suddenly felt a shivver run up my spine at her look.

I dismissed it, and fully opened the door. She instantly brightened up and called out "Badda!" before charging unsteadily forward to me. I laughed and caught her, lifting her up and getting her high in the air. Finally, we both settled down and I pulled her on to my lap. I was holding her right in front of the frame that held Catherines' favorite revelation: 216. "See this Terra? This is revelation 216, your mothers favorite in the whole bible. I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of life freely. Now, do you want to play with Amata?" Terra clapped her hands and shouted out "'Mada!" as I hoisted her up. I grinned, and we both headed to the overseers room. I couldn't shake that strange feeling I had.

I looked at my daughter as she was handed the pipboy by the overseer. She looked happy and… smug, I think. Yes, my daughter looked smug about owning a pipboy. Probably something involving Butch, the little bastard. Of course, I would never say that outloud, but he constantly bullied Terra, along with his little friends. Of course, she always insulted him right back, and I had even seen her trip him or flick in the head a couple of times. I never called her on it, but I made sure later on to tell her something about being nice to people. I then realized I was simply standing there, staring at empty space, and quickly made my way over to Terra. "Happy birthday sweetie, I can't even think of how quickly you've grown! Go on, enjoy your party, talk to people! Let loose, after all, you only get one life!" I laughed, and went back to my seat, watching her. She talked to Amata briefly, who passed her a comic. One of the more violent ones, that I didn't really approve of for her, but she never tried to act out something in the comics, so I let her have them. Then she preceded to talk to people, and she was even given a cupcake from Miss Palmer! Yes, she indeed liked those cupcakes, and she quickly sat down to eat and read. After that, she continued along, and I started going through my pipboy, talking to Jonas about our little 'surprise'. Suddenly, I heard a loud cry, and when my head bolted up, I saw a very bad scene. Terra was crouching down, looking at Butch as blood poured from his nose and mouth. I sat speachless, before both I and Officer Gomez rushed to the spot. Gomez went for terra, picking her up and setting her roughly in a chair, while I fingered Butches face, figuring out how much damage had been done. By the time I had returned from the infirmery, I saw Terra sitting in a seat, wearing a little red baseball cap, and Gomez standing near the door, waiting for me. "What happened?" I asked, and Gomez answered as Terra lifted her head to stare blankly at us. "Apparantly Butch was angry about her eating a cupcake, and he lashed out. She says that she ducked and fought back. Amata agrees with her, though she looks a bit pale." I thought about it for a moment, and then asked the question. "What do you think?" He held his eyes closed for a moment, then spoke without opening them up. "I think she's telling the truth, but I also think she really meant to hurt Butch." I wondered about that for a moment, then passed Gomez and grabbed Terras' arm gently. "Come on, I wanna show you something." She followed without comment, still holding that blank expression, and I led her down to the reactor level. There, we met Jonas, whom I'd told the situation to on the way there.

I handed her a BB gun and pointed towards the targets I had set up the day before. "Go ahead, shoot." She looked at me, startled, for a moment, then nodded and grew a smile. She fired off six pellets. Two hit. Over the next two hours, she used up about sixteen hundred pellets, without a word, and by the time she was done, she shot every single target without fail. I ruffled her hair and we turned around. There Jonas was, with a camera, and we both grinned into the camera as it gave us a picture of my daughters' first time shooting a weapon. Of my daughters tenth birthday. I felt something cold inside me, and the hair in my hands barely moved.

Reveiws, please. What do you think?


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, the lines didn't work, so I'm going to do XXXXX for all the time skips and such. Also, just realized I didn't do this earlier; I don't fallout, only the Bethesda dudes do, blah blah blah. Okay, let's go!

XXXXX

"You're completely fine. Not a single illness. In fact, I'd say you're abnormally healthy considering you wanted to get out of class." I told my daughter as she sat on the table. She looked annoyed, but also slightly amused. That is to say, she was annoyed I didn't believe her, and amused because I had bothered in the first place. We both knew she was just trying to get out of taking the GOAT, and she'd have to do better than that to fool me. She whined about how he throat felt sore and her eyes didn't feel right, and I continued to say "no" to her attempts. Finally, she gave up and I was pushing her out the door, which promptly closed. I went to my computer and began to type.

_I don't understand Terra so much. At times she seems completely normal, but then she'll suddenly do something without a shred of normalcy… Like last week, she was playing baseball. She's always had a strong arm, and she missed her target. The ball hit Wally directly in the face, and he was bleeding and on the verge of tears, but she didn't pay any attention. She simply walked up to him and picked up the ball, tossing it at Butch, who was the pitcher. Then she went back to first base and readied herself for another swing. She stood in that position for twenty five minutes, until I went up to her and told her the game was over. She just looked at me, and then dropped the bat and started walking back to her room. I don't exactly know why she's like this, but it may have to do with_

James looked up as he heard something. He opened his door and found himself looking at Wally Mack and Paul Hanon dragging somebody. Then, I heard him groan, and as they put him on the table, I saw his face. Butch's face was completely crushed; his nose was broken and slammed into his face, his lips were bloody and looked torn, and there was blood all over his forehead. I immediately went to work, grabbing stimpaks and medical bandages. I injected the stimpak and started to wrap up his head, then grabbed a bottle of pain killers and handed them to Butch. He swallowed them even without water, and I continued to work on him. I spent twenty minutes making sure he was fine, and then I turned to his friends. "What happened?" I asked, and they both yelled it out at the same time. "That bitch Terra did it!" That stunned me, but not as much as I would've liked. "Tell me." Wally thought for a moment, then began to recount the experience. "We were messing around with Amata, just making a few jokes and trying to annoy her a bit. Terra suddenly comes up and tells us to back off. Butch told her to fuck off and made to push her. Next thing we know, she grabbed Butches head, turned it around, and slammed it into the wall. Then she grabbed Amatas' arm and dragged her to the classroom." I listened without a single emotion on my face. Finally, I waved Wally and Paul out of the room, and sat in the chair. I made a decision, and headed to the classroom. There, I saw Mr. Brotch. "I would like to see my daughter's answers to the GOAT." I stated firmly, and Brotch gave them to me without a second thought at the sight of my face. I went back to the clinic and began to read through them.

xxxxx

_You are approached by a frenzied vault scientist, who yells, "I'm going to put my quantum harmonizer in your photonic resonation chamber!" What's your response?_

_Answer_

I only caught a little bit of that. Head to some other jackass, 'kay?

_While working as an intern in the clinic, a patient with a strange infection on his foot stumbles through the door. The infection is spreading at an alarming rate, but the doctor has stepped out for a while. What do you do?_

_Answer_

Inject him with a painkiller and drag the closest thing to a doctor into the room.

_You discover a young boy lost in the lower levels of the vault. He's hungry and frightened, but also appears to be in possession of stolen property. What do you do?_

_Answer_

Take the stolen property, hand him a bottle of water and a candy bar, then wait. When he's finished, kick him in the gut and leave him as punishment, while using a marker to give a him a trail to follow.

_Congratulations! You made one of the Vault 101 baseball teams! Which position do you prefer?_

_Answer_

Hitter first, pitcher second.

_Your Grandmother invites you to tea, but you're surprised when she gives you a pistol and orders you to kill another vault resident. What do you do?_

_Answer_

I don't have a grandmother, but if I did, I'd find out her reasons. Then I'd either kill my grandmother, or I'd kill both of them.

_Old Mr. Abernathy has locked himself in his quarters again, and you've been ordered to get him out. How do you proceed?_

_Answer_

Break the door.

_Oh no! You've been exposed to radiation, and a mutated hand has grown out of your stomach! What's the best course of treatment?_

_Answer_

If it's functional, keep it. If it's useless, cut it off using morphine, a butcher knife, and medical bandages.

_A fellow Vault 101 resident is in possession of a Grognak the Barbarian comic book, issue number 1. You want it. What's the best way to obtain it?_

_Answer_

The best way to obtain it would be to hit the other on the head with something long and heavy, then take the comic. The way I'd obtain it though, is by either trading something with him for it, or by tricking him into leaving it somewhere and stealing it. Preferably the latter.

_You decide it would be fun to play a prank on your father. You enter his private restroom when no one is looking, and..._

_Answer_

Lie in wait for him. When he comes, I hit him on the head with a pipe and drag him into the lunchroom. Then I set a firecracker to explode right by his ear when he wakes up. Finally, I knock out Butch Deloria and set him in a position that will make it seem as though he was the one that did it all. Then, Amata will back me up if Butch declares me to be the one that did it.

_Who is indisputably the most important person in Vault 101: He who shelters us from the harshness of the atomic wasteland, and to whom we owe everything we have, including our lives?_

_Answer_

There is no one in this vault who could fit all those for 'us' but for 'me' it would be my Dad and Mom. I would say it is likewise for the parents of everyone else in the vault.

xxxxx

I sighed, thinking about how she had always been so strange with her thoughts. This was pure proof of that. Then, I heard a groan behind me. I looked, and saw that Butch was finally getting up. He seemed to still be in pain, so I handed him more painkillers. He took them. Now, to sign out the report for the Overseer… and I would have to talk to Terra later. I dreaded that moment.


	3. Chapter 3

"Dead, dead, oh all so dead~" Terra sang in a soft voice. Yet, she was wrong. I was alive, but she thought I was dead. But why was everyone dead. And why was Terra so little? Why did she look like she did when she was five? Then I saw what she was singing about. I was really dead. And so was everyone else. The Overseer, his head was split in half, decapitated, and there were frying red rods coming out of his mouth. Butch, he was being eaten by a thousand tiny radroaches, as big as they should have been before the war. Amata, she was the best looking. She simply laid there, blood coming from her mouth, her eyes wide open. And then. There was me. I was looking at myself, and even though it was completely destroyed, completely mutilated beyond any sense of recognition, I knew it was me. And then, there was everybody else. We were at the center, Butch, Amata, the Overseer, and Me. Probably some of the most important people in Terras' life, and we were at the very center. The center of that giant circle. The circle of bodies, and every single time I looked at a person, the next looked worse, more bloodied, more dead. The only ones who never changed, no matter how hard I looked or how many times I turned away, they stayed the exact same. Them. Us. And Terra. Terra simply sat in the center, looking incredibly happy as she sang. "The world has died, I have hopes, why must we fi-g-ht? The shells, they drop, and the world goes dark, so dark. Oh, why must we fi-g-ht? I have hopes, I have hopes, high hopes that we can st-o-p!" And then, her singing of the song changed. She changed the words, and as the words changed, she changed, becoming older, but as she aged she became darker, shadows played across her body, and her voice became sad, dark, and depressing. "I have my hopes, my hopes, but those hopes are dashed! Why must we fi-g-ht? Why must we fi-g-ht? Why don't we kill? Why don't we kill? We should kill! When we are no longer here, we can't fight! So why must we fi-g-ht, why must we fi-g-ht?" Then her song stopped. She stood up, grasping herself tightly as if she was cold, and then the shadows disappeared. They were replaced by light, and she seemed to glow with brilliance, happy and enchanting. Then, I could no longer see my body. Because I was in it. And my body was raised, destroyed as it was, and I faced my daughter as she smiled brilliantly. I could see all the others do the same, all floating in the air, all facing Terra. And then, she opened her mouth wide-

And I woke up to the sound of alarms, and the sight of red. There was an emergency, and for a second I felt horrifying fear that the person above me was Terra, and that she was holding a knife. But then I regained my senses, and saw that it was Jonas. Except he looked horrible, as if he had been beaten, and there was fear etched across his face. "James, wake up damnit!" I groggily wiped my eyes, and asked "What's happening?" as I sat up, the dream already fading. "T… Terra has left! The vault, she's fucking left!" I was speechless for a moment, and then I grabbed Jonas by his shoulders. "What are you talking about?" He yelled "She's left!" and before I knew what I was doing I was up and heading for her room. When the door opened, I saw her bed empty, completely straight the same way it was always straight. Her BB gun was gone. Her baseball bat was gone. I searched through her room, gone, gone, gone, everything was… gone. Jonas stood in the doorway, but I didn't notice him. I ransacked my daughter's room for fifteen minutes, finding nothing but stupid little things. Finally, I collapsed on her bed, attempting to understand what this meant. My daughter, wasn't… in the… vault. That meant she was… in the… in the wasteland. Outside. With the raiders and the slavers and the deathclaws-and-the-yaoi-guai-and-and-and… I had to calm down. I had to calm down. But I couldn't. I couldn't. Then, I jetted from my daughters bed. I pushed past Jonas, not even noticing him as he followed. I went through the halls of the vault, ignoring the bodies, ignoring Jonas behind me. Then, I reached the Atrium. Guards were there, at the door to the vault exit. They shot at me. I felt old instincts take over, and I was out of sight within milliseconds. Bullets darted after me, and I felt rage build. I went into the workshop just by, I picked up a random piece of metal, and then I threw it at the guards as I rammed forward. As they were distracted, I slammed the both of them, banging their heads into the door. Then I stomped on one's head, and just beside me I heard Jonas pick a guard up and slam him into the wall. And I killed him. I ripped his helmet off, picked up his gun, and… shot him. Twice. The first went into his eye; the second struck his upper left jaw. And he was dead. But that barely mattered. The bullet that had been shot into my leg didn't matter. I pressed the open button on the door. Didn't work. I rammed my fist into the console. Didn't work. I shot the lock mechanisms. It worked, and I went through, with a pale Jonas behind me, begging me to stop and think this out. I didn't listen, and as I slammed my fingers on the buttons and switches and levers that would open the vault, I didn't listen. I would not listen to him beg me to make sure my leg was okay, or to stop and think about why there were bodies everywhere, to think about why we hadn't heard a single thing from the overseer through this whole thing. I did not listen, I did not care, I did not notice. Terra… Terra… Terra. Terra. Terra, Terra, Terra, Terra, I needed Terra! I was out of the vault before the grinding door was even halfway open, and as I approached the outside, I felt my eyes burn. It didn't matter. It would never matter, so long as I found Terra. I rammed through the wood door, and for one glorious second I forgot about Terra as I saw the outside, the brown sky that was filled by clouds, the grey earth dotted by greyer ruins. It wasn't much, but it was one of the grandest things I had ever seen. Then the sun really hit my eyes, and as pain ripped into my eyes and head like a giant sword being driven inside, I felt my mind fade. I felt every drop of blood that came out of the bullet hole and exactly how the shredded skin moved and reacted to each move with flaring pain. And I hit the ground, my head making a solid thunk on some rock that was unluckily directly where my head hit. I heard Jonas yell, and then there was only black in my mind. And Terra. Terra, and black, emptiness, and then I was asleep, left to the mercy of nightmares. Mercy of Terra.


End file.
